Strategies for Building Resilience Prep

Leaders who work in high stress situations need to feel valued for what they do. These leaders often manage staff who work on the front-lines and are continually impacted by stress, violence, crime, trauma, adversity and sickness. As you watch the five videos below, reflect on the Think about it questions after each video.

1. Kelly McGonigal – How to make stress your friend

Stress. It makes your heart pound, your breathing quicken and your forehead sweat. But while stress has been made into a public health enemy, new research suggests that stress may only be bad for you if you believe that to be the case. Psychologist Kelly McGonigal urges us to see stress as a positive, and introduces us to an unsung mechanism for stress reduction: reaching out to others. [14:16]

1- Kelly McGonigal believes that changing how you think about stress makes you healthier. Your thoughts?
2- She says that the oxytocin response motivating you to seek support makes you social. Your thoughts?
3- Caring for others showed no stress-related increase in dying – caring created resilience. Your thoughts?
4- Viewing your stress response as helpful, you create the biology of courage and resilience. Your thoughts?

Identify at least one idea that you can use to improve your situation.

2. Simon Sinek –How great leaders inspire action

Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model that consists of 3 concentric circles. From the inside out, they represent the motivators of human behaviour, the why, the how and the what.

Sinek says leaders who want to inspire and persuade others should never ask their colleagues and direct reports to ‘buy’ into or commit to the what until they have spent time helping them understand and commit to the why – the deeper motivators that help make sense of and energize why something needs to be done. [Listen to the first 11 mins]

Think about it
1- How often have you helped a colleague or direct report understand the why, rather than just the what and how?
2- How can you change your approach to incorporate this shift into your leadership style?
3- How will this approach help you communicate and engage others better?

Identify at least one idea that you can use to improve the way you communicate

3. Dan Pink – The Puzzle of Motivation

Bidding adieu to his last “real job” as Al Gore’s speechwriter, Dan Pink went freelance to spark a right-brain revolution in the career marketplace.
Career analyst Dan Pink examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don’t: Traditional rewards aren’t always as effective as we think. Listen for illuminating stories — and maybe, a way forward. [17:52]

1- Dan Pink talks about contingent motivators — if you do this, then you get that – work in some circumstances. But for a lot of tasks, they actually either don’t work or, often, they do harm. This is one of the most robust findings in social science, and also one of the most ignored.

How can you apply this thinking and make changes to your work situation?

How can your approach be different?

2- Dan Pink says that the new operating system revolves around three elements: autonomy, mastery and purpose. Autonomy: the urge to direct our own lives. Mastery: the desire to get better and better at something that matters. Purpose: the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.

How can you use more intrinsic motivators at work to get better results?

How would you measure your own sense of autonomy, motivation and purpose?

4. Nigel Marsh – How to make work-life balance work

Work-life balance, says Nigel Marsh, is too important to be left in the hands of your employer. Marsh lays out an ideal day balanced between family time, personal time and productivity — and offers some stirring encouragement to make it happen.

Nigel Marsh presents and writes on business and personal life — and how the two interact. He is the author of “Fat, Forty and Fired. [9:51]

1- What can you add to your work and home life so that you have a greater sense of meaning and motivation?
2- What can you remove from your work and home life so that you have a greater sense of fulfillment?

What small, sustainable change can you make that will stand a good chance of becoming a new, positive habit?

5. Jeff Iliff – One more reason to get a good night’s sleep

The brain uses a quarter of the body’s entire energy supply, yet only accounts for about two percent of the body’s mass. So how does this unique organ receive and, perhaps more importantly, rid itself of vital nutrients? New research suggests it has to do with sleep. [11:37]

Think about what Jeff Iliff suggests within the context of your home and work

1- What are your current sleep patterns?
2- Why is this so important?
3- What can you do differently?
4- What are some anticipated benefits?

6. Matt Cutts – Try something new for 30 days

Is there something you’ve always meant to do, wanted to do, but just … haven’t? Matt Cutts suggests: Try it for 30 days. This short, lighthearted talk offers a neat way to think about setting and achieving goals. How can you take up his 30-day challenge and apply it to the way you communicate?

Matt Cutts is an engineer at Google, where he fights linkspam and helps webmasters understand how search works. [3:27]

1- What can you add to your work and home life so that you have a greater sense of meaning and motivation?
2- What can you remove from your work and home life so that you have a greater sense of fulfillment?

What small, sustainable change can you make that will stand a good chance of becoming a new, positive habit beyond the 30-day challenge?

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